


Don't Hold It Against Me

by awesofying



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Green Arrow - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, apartment of awesome, bffs are the new otp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-15
Updated: 2014-02-15
Packaged: 2018-01-12 10:57:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1185428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awesofying/pseuds/awesofying
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After moving in to Felicity's apartment, Sara comes home late to find Felicity passed out on the couch. Post-2x13.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Hold It Against Me

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thank you to hjea for helping me fix the rough edges and make the Felicity and Sara bff apartment times a reality with her fic, Fundamental Things, which is the pre-canon for this story.

Sara returned to the apartment well past two in the morning, after a long night of patrolling with Oliver, to what had become a familiar sight in the last few weeks. Felicity, passed out on the couch, ever present tablet dangling from her fingers a few inches from the floor. She hadn’t been kidding when she told Sara that the couch was her bed of choice lately. Shrugging out of her jacket, Sara took her gear and deposited it in the hall closet with the rest of her meager possessions. 

Felicity kept trying to get her to agree to an IKEA trip, for an extra dresser and maybe a new pull out couch, but hadn’t been successful and Sara was starting to fear the woman would just ambush her one morning after a long patrol. She was considering letting Felicity convince her to buy more than five outfits for her wardrobe in attempt to prolong avoiding IKEA--but who knew where she would be in a few weeks. 

Grabbing her pajamas from the pile of clothes she had in the old file box on the floor of the closet, she walked into the bathroom and changed in the dark. She purposely left the door open while she brushed her teeth to make some noise in case Felicity had woken up. Sara had grown so accustomed to operating in the dark she didn’t even realize she was doing anything unusual until Felicity told her to stop “ninja-ing her way through the apartment” because it was giving her a heart attack whenever Sara would suddenly appear in a room without any noises to warn her of her return. 

Sara was rinsing her toothbrush when she heard a muffled cry from the front room. Dropping the toothbrush, she bolted the two steps down the hallway, slowing to scan for threats as she entered the main room. 

Within seconds it was clear no one was in the room. Felicity’s tablet had finally fallen to the floor and she was laying on her stomach with her arms pinned beneath her. Her hair was a riot of curls, askew over her shoulder and down her back, glasses forgotten on the coffee table in front of the couch and the throw blanket drawn across her thighs beginning to fall to the floor. Sara was about to dismiss the cry as something coming from a neighboring apartment when she noticed the tear falling across the bridge of Felicity’s nose to drip onto the couch cushion. Kneeling down, she reached out to Felicity’s shoulder and gently shook her. It took a few more tries before Felicity opened her eyes and slammed her body against the back of the couch, giving Sara a terrified stare. 

“Woah. Easy, easy. It’s just me.” Sara attempted a reassuring smile but was fairly convinced she landed pretty shy of the mark based on Felicity’s bright purple nails digging into the cushion of the couch even tighter. She stood up to give the woman some space and walked into the kitchenette on the other side of the room, turning on lights as she entered. 

“Do you want some tea? I’m going to have some either way, I’ll just add some extra water to the kettle.” She didn’t expect Felicity to respond for a few minutes but kept talking anyway, “Did you pick up any of the Relax tea we talked about last week? I keep sleeping through when the store’s open. I think I might tell Ollie I’m taking a weekend off from patrolling just so I can go tea shopping. My selection is pretty depleted.” Glancing across the breakfast bar into the main room, she noticed Felicity sitting up with the blanket wrapped around her shoulders but still staring blankly at the coffee table.

Digging into the cupboard above the counter to the right of the stove, Sara found the last two silk tea bags of orchid oolong to deposit into the coffee mugs she swiped from the unemptied dishwasher. She’d meant to do that for Felicity before she left that night, but Sin had texted her in a pinch and it’d slipped her mind. She could do it in the morning after Felicity left for her day job at Queen Industries. 

“Have I mentioned lately that I still don’t understand how you survive a day job and running everything in the Arrow cave? I feel like Oliver mentions every night how addicted to coffee you are, but I know that can’t be all it is.” Pouring the now boiling water into the mugs, she let the statement linger for a moment, waiting for Felicity to protest her dedication. When there was no response, Sara continued, “I remember before the island, I read a study about caffeine becoming less effective the more you consumed it or something.” She looked down at the tea steeping into the mugs and turned to walk back into the room where Felicity was. “You know, it’s funny what you remember even after everything you’ve been through. Useless stuff like that always stays with you I guess.” 

She set the mugs down on the coffee table, one directly in front of Felicity and returned to the kitchen for a saucer, grabbing the half empty box of Girl Scout cookies from the counter as an after thought. By the time she returned to sit in the chair next to the couch Felicity had picked up her mug and had it clutched in her hands.

“I don’t normally drink tea.” Felicity’s voice was slightly raspy and she didn’t look up from staring into the contents of her cup. Sara sipped her tea and then removed the bag, grabbing a cookie from the box. “I know. I try not to hold it against you.” Felicity glanced up at her before tentatively taking a sip and grimacing slightly. 

“It tastes like water.” 

Sara resisted the urge to laugh at Felicity and shrugged instead, “You just think that because you’re used to having your tastebuds bulldozed by coffee. Tea is more delicate. More nuanced.” 

Felicity took another sip from her mug and smiled lightly at Sara. “Is this you messing with me?” Sara munched her cookie thoughtfully before replying, “Maybe.” Felicity sighed and put her mug down. Silence stretched for a few minutes. 

“I don’t want to talk about it.” 

“I wasn’t going to ask.” 

The look on Felicity’s face indicated her surprise, “Really?” Sighing, Sara offered the box of cookies to her. Felicity shook her head and instead picked up her mug of tea. Sara shrugged, “Really. Everyone has nightmares. Whatever yours are about are probably more real and more terrifying than almost anyone you know. Whether or not you want to share them is up to you. Even more up to you is who you share them with. You have a history I wasn’t here for but if you want to talk about it, I’ll listen.” Pausing she looked directly at Felicity and continued, “It’s just, I don’t think I’d be able to offer much help. I forgot how to comfort people a long time ago.” 

Felicity just looked at her. After over a minute without a response Sara started to get uncomfortable. “What?”

“You really think you’ve forgotten how to comfort people?” 

“Felicity, I know I have. I can’t help my family. Laurel wants nothing to do with me. Oliver and I-- well, you know how that went…” She trailed off when Felicity started to shake her head. 

“Sara, you take care of people. That’s how you comfort them. Maybe you think you’ve forgotten the words but your actions say how much you care. I’m not saying you need to listen to me tell you all about how I fall asleep and think I’m actually waking up to the Count still holding me hostage and injecting me with Vertigo over and over, which I guess I just did, but that’s not the point. The point is you do know how to comfort people. You just forgot how to talk to them, which is okay because as someone who talks a lot I can tell you it’s pretty overrated sometimes.” 

Sara was caught off guard by Felicity’s ramble. Not so much by the rambling part, that was a fairly regular occurrence with the her, but by what she said. It had never occurred to her that way before, but she could see the other woman’s point. Her thoughts were interrupted by Felicity a minutes later.

“Sara? Are you going to eat all the cookies or can I still have one?” Glancing down at the box in front of her, she sighed and tossed it at Felicity. 

“Damn. Now I have to brush my teeth again.”


End file.
